Man, 1-year-old boy die as Via Rail train, SUV collide in St-Liboire

No train passengers were injured; Via Rail says crossing barriers were functioning at the time of the crash

SQ and other investigators survey the scene after an SUV was hit by a passenger train at a level crossing near St-Liboire, east of Montreal, Monday, June 2, 2014. A man in his 40s and a year-old child died in the accident.

Photograph by: Phil Carpenter
, The Gazette

MONTREAL — A collision between a passenger train and a car in the Montérégie region Monday morning has left two people dead — a man in his 40s and a one-year-old boy.

The accident happened at 7:10 a.m. in St-Liboire, near St-Hyacinthe, about 75 kilometres east of Montreal.

"We cannot exclude that it may be a voluntary act and for that reason the investigation was taken over by the homicide squad," Sûreté du Québec spokesperson Sgt. Joyce Kemp said. The investigation is ongoing, she added, and no new information was expected to be released on Monday.

Via Rail passenger train No. 20 was en route to Quebec City when it slammed into the car at a level crossing. The train had left Central Station in Montreal at 6:15 a.m.

As of late Monday, Via Rail's website invited the public to check the status of train arrivals and departures for the Québec City-Windsor corridor online using the train number or departure or arrival station.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada sent a team of investigators to the site to gather information and assess what happened.

A Via Rail spokesperson said the crossing barriers were working correctly and were down at the time of the impact, as cameras mounted on the engine show.

The force of the collision cut the black SUV in half, with the front and back portions left more than 20 metres apart.

Highway 116, which bisects the train line, was closed in both directions for most of the day while accident reconstruction specialists did their job.

Passengers were kept inside the train, stopped near the crash site, for a little more than three hours. The train then left for Drummondville, where the passengers were bused to their destination.

Via Rail said none of the train passengers were injured.

"Yes, this will affect the line, and I cannot say for how long," said Via Rail spokesperson Jacques Gagnon. "We have sent resources to relieve the engineers because, as you can imagine, this is a very traumatic event."

SQ and other investigators survey the scene after an SUV was hit by a passenger train at a level crossing near St-Liboire, east of Montreal, Monday, June 2, 2014. A man in his 40s and a year-old child died in the accident.